Nucky and Eli fight in Boardwalk Empire Season 2 Episode 5
Boardwalk Empire Season 2 Episode 5: ‘Gimcrack and Bunkum’ making of.
Atlantic City was build to help people forget. But this day, memorial day, is for remembering.
Episode five is titled ‘Gimcrack and Bunkum.’ Gimcrack is anything that looks flashy and enticing, but is actually just kind of cheap and pathetic. Something that’s a whole load of nonsense. This episode opens with some very noble talk about sacrifice and heroism. Meanwhile everyone is out pursuing their own goals.
It's meant to evoke that disconnect between saying impressive things and discovering it's all basically a smokescreen for going after what you want, not caring what the consequences are.
Eli comes to see Nucky, because he discovers early in the episode that Commodore has had a stroke and is incapacitated. So the man that he assumed had all the power, all the connections, all the expertise and all the ability to keep all the other ducks in a row is now out of the picture. His allegiance with Jimmy is tentative. I think that's enough ammunition for Eli to be thinking: I may have made a very wrong decision here. I wonder if I go back on my hands and knees, if I can possibly save my own bacon here. Which is what brings him back to Nucky. Nucky is not prone to forgiving. And really uses this scene to rip a strip of flesh of Eli. There's nowhere your passions run higher than with your family. That's a very volatile combination. And it just explodes.
Tim Van Patten also talks about the fight scene between Nucky and Eli.
